This sector is going through change at an unprecedented pace. Traditional business are challenged, new market forces are emerging and consumer behaviour is changing and adapting to a novel setting.This creates a complex set of interrelated issues which range from analysis of market power, to data protection and privacy, incentivising content and infrastructure investment and innovation but, at the same time, protecting consumers.

The 2010 Jevons Colloquium brought together head of authorities, senior enforcers, business representatives. academics, and the leading experts from the EU and US to discuss this set of issues.

Joaquin Almunia, the EU Competition Commissioner opened the Colloquium and started the debate with John Fingleton, OFT's Chief Executive, Willard K Tom,at the US Federal Trade Commission and other senior authority heads and business figures. Ed Richards, Ofcom's Chief Executive, gave a key note address.

The Colloquium featured a number of other senior enforcers and leading experts including: Per Hellstrom of DG Competition at the European Commission; Thibaud Vergé, Chief Economist at the French Competition Authority, Heather Clayton, Senior Director of OFT and responsible for the OFT recent study on online targeting; Jon Baker, Professor at the American University; Andrea Coscelli, Director of Competition Economics at Ofcom, and Pamela Harbour, former Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission.

Accreditation: 6 CPD hours (SRA and BSB)

Overview:David Evans, UCL and University of Chicago

What are the business models behind the behaviour of the major players?

How does the increasingly pervasive presence of Internet-based options alter competition among businesses

Are problems emerging, is it too early to worry, and can we count on the competitive process?

About this event:
Use of cartel sanctions and the effectiveness of public and private enforcement against cartels is coming under renewed scrutiny. Some of the issues that are being considered in Europe include: enhanced penalties for recidivism, full waivers for leniency applicants who are also ringleaders, co-operation outside the leniency process, the role of private damages and the issue of parent-company liability. The issue of criminal sanctions is being considered at national level. The incoming Commissioner Almunia and DG Comp will have to tackle all these issues in the coming months. These themes have implications also national level for both national authorities and courts, particularly in the UK where private damages are taking off and cartelists can be exposed to criminal prosecutions. Judge Douglas Ginsburg of US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit will discuss some of those issues from a US and international perspective and the Jevons Forum will include contributions from John Fingleton of the OFT, Ewatt Sakker of the European Commission and a judge from the newly-renamed EU General Court. Sir Christopher Bellamy a former CFI judge and President of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal will chair the debate.

Advanced Training for Judges in Competition Law and Economics
The Jevons/IDEI training programme is designed to provide advanced training in competition law and economics for judges who have (or may have) to adjudicate on private competition litigation or commercial disputes with a competition law dimension. The participants will be introduced to key concepts of competition law and applied economics and will be trained to analyse in depth themes that are central to modern judicial enforcement of competition law. Most seminars within the programme will be led by two teachers, a lawyer and an economist with experience in competition law enforcement. The faculty comprises acting and former national judges and members of the European and US judiciary as well as internationally recognized scholars and senior competition authority officials.

Conference organised by the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe: Vertical Restraints in EC Competition Law: New Dynamics

One and a half day conference with a a full programme of speakers including:
Philip Lowe (DG, European Commission)
Philip Collins (Chairman, OFT)
Sir Christopher Bellamy (Linklaters LLP)
Judge Nicholas Forwood (European Court of First Instance) and others

About this conference
The reform of EC competition law on vertical restraints has marked the beginning of the process of transformation of EC competition law in the late 1990s, in particular because of the adoption of a more compatible to neoclassical economic theory approach. Almost ten years since the adoption of Regulation 2790/99 and the vertical restraints guidelines, the European Commission has initiated a revision process and has published some proposals at this respect. The aim of this conference would be (a) to understand the process of the reform of EC competition law on verticals, (b) to provide some useful comparative insights, by looking to the most recent developments in US antitrust law on verticals as well as the most recent competition law practice in some Member States’ and selected jurisdictions and (c) to critically assess the proposals of the European Commission, by confronting them to recent economic theory and to legal practice.

The event explores:

General aspects of the reform of Vertical Restraints

A retrospective and prospective of the vertical restraints reform

Internet distribution and vertical restraints

Tying/bundling

Resale Price Maintenance

Exclusive territories and parallel trade

Vertical restraints and the rise of retailer power: competition law and alternatives

Vertical restraints in national competition laws and international convergence

The Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics held a Roundtable: Behavioral Economics, Consumer Protection and Antitrust, in Washington, D.C. on September 30, 2009 The event, organized by Professors Antonio Bavasso and David S. Evans, was chaired by Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The 25 participants included top officials from the European Commission, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, other competition authorities, judges, academics, and practitioners. During the five-hour program, the participants discussed behavioral economics which examines how individuals and firms actually behave rather than assuming they behave rationally. Behavioral economics has already been applied to consumer protection where for example some have advocated that consumers be “nudged” to make decisions that are in their best interest but which they might not otherwise take. The participants, most of whom are antitrust specialists, also discussed whether and to what extent behavioral economics was relevant to antitrust. The discussion continued over a dinner hosted by Dominick Chilcott, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy. This was the third annual Jevons Roundtable in DC.

June 2009

Fourth Annual Colloquium on Antitrust and Regulation:The Role of Behavioural Economics in Consumer Protection and Competition Law

Eliana Garces-Tolon, Member of Commissioner Cabinet, DG Sanco, European Commission

A judicial perspective:

Judge Douglas Ginsburg, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia CircuitDownload Slides

Vivien Rose, Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal

2008

Antitrust and Regulation Forum The Financial Crisis and its implications for State Aid and Competition Policy

The financial crisis is having a deep impact on the regulatory landscape worldwide and is calling into question a number of established principles of economic governance in general as well as the role of the State in the economy. Against this backdrop the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics has decided to dedicate its annual forum to the consequences of the financial crisis on the role of competition law and State aid rules. We have assembled leading academics and head of competition authorities to debate this topic. Together they will discuss the policy implications of the current crisis, the role of the European Commission as the guardian of competition State aid rules at EU-level, and the role of national competition authorities.

Competition Law in a Global Context Lecture SeriesOne size fits all: competition laws and enforcement around world

Speaker:Professor Abel Mateus, former First President of Portuguese Competition AuthorityCompetition laws and institutions are almost the same around the 100 plus countries that have adopted them. What is the importance of competition for development? Is the model being exported around the world an efficient institutional arrangement to promote development and fairness for consumers? How competition policy interacts with the political system and ways to improve its enforcement with different levels of institutional development? Competition policy, interest groups and corruption.

Competition Law in a Global Context Lecture Parallel imports of pharmaceuticals and EC competition law after Sot. Lélos kai Sia (Case C-468/06)

The recent judgment of the European Court of Justice in Sot. Lélos kai Sia (Case C-468/06) is the latest and most important development in the GlaxoSmithKline saga of cases on restrictions to parallel imports of pharmaceuticals and the application of EC competition law. The two speakers represented opposing parties in the legal proceedings at the European and the national level in this case. They will discuss their take on the ECJ's position (and the possible outcome in pending cases) as well as the implications of this judgment on the pharma industry and on the future of parallel imports in Europe in general.

Closed Roundtable: The Role of the Judiciary in the Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws: Experiences in the United States and European Community

The Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics held a Roundtable: The Role of the Judiciary in the Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws: Experiences in the United States and European Community, in Washington, D.C. in October 2008. The event, organized by Professors Antonio Bavasso and David S. Evans, was chaired by Judge Douglas Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Nicholas Forwood of the European Court of First Instance. The 30 participants included top officials from the European Commission, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, other competition authorities, judges, academics, and practitioners. During the three-hour program, the participants discussed the role of the judiciary in analyzing cartels, abuse of dominance, and merger reviews. The discussion continued over a dinner hosted by Dominick Chilcott, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy, and concluded with remarks by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Competition Law in a Global Context Lecture The European Competition Network: is it efficient? And the rule of law?

Speaker:
Professor Abel Mateus, former First President of Portuguese Competition AuthorityThe major reform of 2004 introduced a decentralized system for competition enforcement in the EU. How does it operate? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How to improve its efficiency in operational? Can it survive over the long term in terms of granting a level-playing field to enterprises and consumers in the EU?

Antitrust and Regulation Colloquium 2008The Role of Guildelines and Precedents in Antitrust Law

Chaired by Bo Vesterdorf, former President of the Court of First Instance – Distinguished Judicial Scholar UCL

A joint conference with:
Athens Bar Association,
Athens University of Economics & Business
Institute of Studies in Competition Law and Policy (IMEDIPA)
Jevons Institute of Competition Law and Economics (UCL)
Centre for Law and Governance in Europe (UCL)

Antitrust and Intellectual Property

The relationship between intellectual property rights, antitrust and regulation
continues to give rise to controversial policy issues and presents a number
of challenges for antitrust enforcers, business, and advisers. A number
of important judgments, antitrust decisions and regulatory initiatives have
been taken in this area and more are forthcoming fuelling the policy and
academic debate.

The Jevons Institute 2007 Colloquium will focus specifically on two areas
that are at forefront of this debate:

the use of IP rights in standard setting organisations and the scope
of Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory licensing obligations

the use and abuse of IP rights in the pharmaceutical sector striking
a regulatory balance between rewarding innovation and preventing harmful
practices (including issues such as excessive pricing, parallel imports,
and patent misuse)

In the spirit of the aims of the Jevons Institute these themes will be
analysed from both an economic and legal perspective.

Antitrust and Regulation Forum:Economic Analysis
of Competition Practices in the EU and the US: A View from Chief Economists

Forum Moderator

Amelia Fletcher, Chief Economist, Office of Fair Trading

Speakers

Damien Neven, Chief Economist, European Commission

Dennis Carlton, Chief Economist, U.S. Department of Justice

Michael Salinger, Chief Economist , Federal Trade Commission

2006

Antitrust and Regulation Series Debate: "Is
there a need for an EU Competition Tribunal?

Speakers:

Bo VesterdorfPresident, Court of First Instance of the European Communities

Sir Christopher Bellamy QCPresident, Competition Appeal Tribunal

Frédéric JennyCour de Cassation, Paris; Visiting Professor, University College
London

UCL Annual Antitrust and Regulation Forum 2006:

The second edition in focused on the reform of EC State aid with a keynote
speech by Philip Lowe (Director General of DG Comp), and comments by Mathias
Dewatripont of Université Libre de Bruxelles and Frédéric
Jenny of the French Cour de Cassation and Visiting Professor at UCL.
View Programme

Colloquia on Antitrust and Regulation:

2005

UCL Annual Antitrust and Regulation Forum 2005:

Chief
Judge Douglas Ginsburg of DC Court of Appeals and President Bo Vesterdorf
of the European Court of First Instance focused on judicial review in EC
and US antitrust law.
View Programme.

Publication
Selected papers presented at the UCL Annual Forum and the Colloquia will be
published in Competition Policy International the review published twice a year
by eSapience (http://www.esapience.org/).